


So Please, Please, Please Won't You Join Me Until The Very End?

by Lilsciencequeen



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Adorable FitzSimmons (Agents of SHIELD), Anxiety, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Medication, Mentions/Illusions to;, Minor Angst, Perthshire Cottage, Therapy, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, but mainly fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-09 03:29:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12267966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilsciencequeen/pseuds/Lilsciencequeen
Summary: It was a Saturday morning, late in July. And it was her and Fitz’s eighth anniversary. Eight years ago, they had gotten married, exchanged their vows under an old oak tree. With their friends and family watching. Of course, they had been together as a couple for just over ten years now, having realised early on in their final year at the Academy that the feelings they had for one another were feelings that were feelings that were more than friendship, that what they felt for each other was romantic, and just over six months later, Fitz proposed. Saying that he loved her, that she was the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, that she was his best friend.// A look into Jemma Anne FitzSimmons' life in Perthshire





	So Please, Please, Please Won't You Join Me Until The Very End?

The sun filtered in through the curtains, lighting up the room, and warming it. But it wasn’t that that woke up Jemma.

No, it was a weight on her lower body, too heavy to be the dog.

She opened her eyes, and saw her daughter sitting there, beaming down at her, a toothy grin with her two front teeth missing, blue eyes twinkling and her soft brown curls unruly.

Jemma couldn’t help but smile up at her daughter. “Are you okay sweetie?”

Peggy nodded, still staring down at her mum. “Can we have pancakes? Please?”

A soft laugh from Jemma, and her gaze flickered over to her husband who was still sleeping, snoring lightly. He had always been a heavy sleeper, and Jemma had joked that he could sleep through anything. “Of course we can.”

It was a Saturday morning, late in July. And it was her and Fitz’s eighth anniversary. Eight years ago, they had gotten married, exchanged their vows under an old oak tree. With their friends and family watching. Of course, they had been together as a couple for just over ten years now, having realised early on in their final year at the Academy that the feelings they had for one another were feelings that were feelings that were more than friendship, that what they felt for each other was romantic, and just over six months later, Fitz proposed. Saying that he loved her, that she was the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, that she was his best friend.

And now, here they were all these years later. Happily married, two children, a dog and a cottage in Perthshire.

They had left S.H.I.E.L.D. early, deciding that it wasn’t the career that they wanted in life. That there was too much danger, too much violence, and the threat of losing one another… it wasn’t a life that they wanted to live. Fitz set up his own company, dealing with anything technical and electronic, and people travelled from miles around to use his services. And Jemma was a primary school teacher, teaching the Year Threes, and everyone loved her, wanting her to be their teacher and being heartbroken when they left her class.

It was a simple life, not anything overly exciting but to them, it was perfect, all that they wanted and the addition of their daughters had only made it better.

“Do you want to wake Daddy up?” Jemma whispered to her daughter, eyes widening and then she nodded and she then proceeded to jump on Fitz, who grunted at the sudden and unexpected weight landing on him. He woke up immediately, and then he looked up, and upon seeing her there, he smiled. “Morning monkey.” He reached up, and began to tickle her, squeals of delight escaping her as she tried to get away from him.

“Daddy!” she cried out, forgetting that her younger sister was there. Ava immediately started crying, the noise filling the room, and the couple looked at each other.

“I’ll get her,” Jemma told him, pushing back the blankets and climbing out of bed, walking over to the cot and lifting their youngest out of bed, gently bouncing on the balls of her feet to soothe her daughter. “And do you and Peggy want to go make pancakes for breakfast?”

Peggy’s smile seemed to split her face and she jumped out of bed, calling out for Mozzarella, and soon the soft pitter patter of paws echoed around the room, the mutt just as excited about the day as they were. Fitz yawned, climbing out of bed, and walking over to his wife, pulling her in close and kissing her, gentle and full of love. And it made her heart flutter just as much as their first kiss had all those years go.

“Happy anniversary Jems.”

***

Breakfast didn’t require a massive clean-up afterwards, for which Jemma had been thankful. Fitz and Peggy had made the pancakes perfectly, soft and fluffy, and everyone more than enjoying them. And after they were finished, and dressed, the five of them decided to go to the local park.

Peggy and Ava had seemed more than happy to go walking with them for the first half an hour around the path, the vibrant colours of the flowers lining it and brightening up an already bright day, but once they saw the play-park and the fact the swings were empty, they changed their minds. Jemma clipped the lead back on Mozzarella, and followed her husband as he led them to the play area, sitting on the bench as he led them to the swing-set in question.

The dog curled up under the bench, falling asleep immediately, and Jemma settled back, relaxing and allowing a smile to cross her face, watching as Fitz pushed the two of them on the swings as Peggy’s squeals of delight and cries to go higher filled the surrounding area.

Five minutes passed, and then ten. By the time fifteen had, Ava was once again in her mother’s arms, Jemma holding her as she began to fall asleep, Jemma whispering lullaby’s and fairy tales in her ear.. Peggy had asked would it be best that they go home, but Jemma told her that she could have fifteen more minutes, and so in that time, Peggy decided to drag Fitz to the sandpit, begging him to make the biggest (and the bestest) sandcastle in the world.

But as time passed, something made Jemma uncomfortable, made her feel uneasy in her own skin, and she turned her head behind her, and saw someone, a figure, hiding behind a tree, staring at the park, watching them, watching _her_.

Jemma squinted into the distant, frowning, trying to see what the figure was doing, trying to work out what they were doing. Just who they were.

“Jems?” a voice asked from behind her, worried and full of concern.

Jemma spun, Ava pressed up against her chest, still fast asleep and saw her husband there, his face laced with confusion.

“Are you okay?”

Jemma nodded, trying to relax. “I just though… I just thought that there was someone there…” she trailed off, chewing on her lip. Then she shook her head. “I must have been imagining things.”

Fitz pressed a kiss to her temple, and whispered into her ear softly. “C’mon, let’s go home.”

***

A week passed, and nothing happened. No one was watching them. Thankfully. Jemma had brushed it off, laughing to Fitz that she must have imagined something, her mind wondering and thinking back to the horror film her and Fitz had watched a few weeks back.

But then, Tuesday afternoon two weeks after the incident in the park, Jemma was walking back to the car, after paying for her parking when someone grabbed her arm, stopping her in her tracks.

“Jemma Simmons?” the person asked her. The person who had stopped her was a woman who looked her age, but Jemma had never seen her in her life. Her face was full of panic and shock and there was something about the way she spoke, as if she were genuinely concerned about Jemma, genuinely worried about her.

Jemma felt her breath catch in her throat. She had never seen this woman before in her life, not at any parent-teacher conference she could remember. Maybe she was a mother of another child at the school. “Who are you?” she asked, her voice soft and terrified. “I don’t know…”

“You do,” the other woman asked. “But not here. Not in this world…” She sighed, and looked over her shoulder, all around her as if she were waiting for some attack, as if she were expecting someone to be there. “This world isn’t real. Jemma, please… You need to get out of here. Before you… please, come with me.”

There was true panic in her voice and Jemma couldn’t help the twisting, churning sensation that her stomach was currently experiencing. Something about this woman, something about her words, they chilled her to her very core.

“I’m sorry,” Jemma settled on in the end, shaking her head and starting to walk off. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Please!” the other woman shouted, grabbing her arm once again and Jemma shook it off, more scared this time.

“Leave me alone,” she begged, hoping to get across to this woman, and keep herself composed, at least until she got home, at least until she got back to the car. “Leave me alone. Leave my children alone. Please.”

And she hurried away from the woman, speed walking across the car park, hoping to get away from the other woman.

***

Fitz could tell that the encounter in the car park with the woman had spooked Jemma. She was always looking over her shoulder, always making sure she knew were Ava and Peggy were, avoiding strangers.

And Jemma didn’t spook easily so what had happened with this woman must have been bad. It was even giving her nightmares, dreams of things that Jemma didn’t even understand.

She awoke often in a cold sweat, muttering about stuff that he couldn’t understand either. And with every passing day, it kept getting worse, her paranoia and fear growing. But no matter how many times he tried to bring it up to her, she brushed him off, saying that it was nothing. That she would be okay tomorrow.

He still hadn’t said anything to her one Thursday evening, when he came home from work and found her sitting on the floor, cross legged and playing with Ava, Peggy lying on the floor beside her, art supplies scattered everywhere beside her.

He slid the keys into the dish, the jingling of the metal altering Jemma to the fact he was home. She spun to face him, the edges of her lips curved up. “Hi.”

He returned the smile, and slid of his coat before hanging it up and coming over to her, sitting behind her and wrapping his arms around her. “Hi,” he whispered back, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to the edge of her mouth. “How are you today?”

She leaned back into his embrace, allowing herself to relax there, hoping to ignore his question but knowing she couldn’t. “I’m fine,” she whispered, not wanting to upset her daughters. “We’ve missed you. You’ve not worked this long a day in a while now.”

He nodded, reaching up and beginning to massage her shoulders. She gave a soft moan of pleasure, and he could feel just how tense she was. He was going to have to convince her to let him give her a proper massage one of these nights. Not that that would be hard to do. “And Mozzarella?”

“Upstairs,” Jemma replied. “Sleeping on our bed I think. How was your day?”

He gave a sigh, resting his head against her own. “Busy. The new Apple update, its messed up so many people’s phones. That’s why I wasn’t in early today. It’ll be another long day tomorrow but…”

“But what?” she asked.

“I’m off Saturday. John is taking over the shop. Thankfully. I was thinking, we could go down to Glasgow, see Mum. It’s been a while since we’ve done that.”

“Of course,” Jemma whispered, “that sounds amazing. And Peggy does love going to that craft shop.”

At the mention of the craft shop, Peggy looked up, sensing that something was going to happen. “Are we going to see Grandma?” she asked, looking between her parents, Jemma sitting back in Fitz’s embrace, Ava still happily playing with her activity centre.

“Yeah,” Fitz replied, beaming at her. “Yeah, Saturday. You excited?”

Peggy nodded, curls bouncing up and down and Fitz, reluctantly, pulled himself away from Jemma and over to her, lifting her into his arms and standing, spinning as he did so. Peggy laughed and smiled at him. “Wanna help make dinner?”

Another nod, and he carried her into the kitchen, Jemma watching as she did so, wondering what she had ever done to deserve such a perfect life.

***

The trip to Glasgow, though there had been a lot of travelling, had been a success, and a fun one at that. Brenda Fitz had prepared a feast and a half for them, and Peggy had come home with at least half the supplies in the shop she loved so much.

Jemma had instantly collapsed into bed when they got home, still in her jeans, curling up next to Fitz after he had put Ava and Peggy to bed, Mozzarella wrapped around their feet but when he called her name, soft and gently, she opened her eyes again and could see that he wanted to talk.

“Jems,” he began, reaching forward and caressing her cheek. “We need to talk about what…”

“I know,” she whispered, closing her eyes, feeling the tears begin to form in her eyes. “I just… I don’t want to worry them. I don’t want them getting upset.” She shook her head, the pillow rustling underneath her.

“Hey,” Fitz told her, trying to reassure her, tilting her head up so that she was looking at him. “It’s probably nothing. Maybe the new meds you’re on aren’t the ones that are working for you. If you want, I’ll take the kids out Monday, and you can phone Dr. Saunders yourself, alone. And not having to worry them.”

Jemma didn’t reply for a moment, and then she nodded, trying to smile up at her husband. “That would be amazing,” she told him. Then; “Thank you.” She allowed herself to kiss him, sinking in to the moment.

He returned the kiss, and it was a promise. A promise that they would always be together, a promise that everything would be okay.

An only half an hour later, Jemma was curled up in his arms, asleep.

***

She was standing in the kitchen, waiting for the kettle to boil. She had phone Dr. Saunders that morning, and she had told Jemma she could come that afternoon, she had a free session. And Jemma had accepted, knowing that talking to someone, talking to a professional would be the best thing. The paranoia from the past number of weeks was finally starting to fade. She was now longer looking over her shoulder all the time, she was no longer worried that someone was out for her, out for her family.

She sighed, leaning back against the kitchen counter when she heard a knock on the door and a frown crossed her face. She wasn’t expecting anyone, nor anything in the post. When another knock on the door came, she pushed herself off the counter and walked out of the kitchen and across the cottage and into the hall, opening the door and what she saw made her heart stop in her chest.

It was the woman from the other week, the woman who had tried to grab her in the car park. She was standing there, on the doorstep to their cottage, with a gun pointed at Jemma.

Jemma swallowed hard, staring at the woman. “Please,” she whispered as the woman facing her was speaking.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, shaking her head and there was real pain in her voice. “I’m so sorry that it had to come to this Jemma but there’s no other way.”

“What are you doing?” Jemma asked, wanting to back away but finding herself frozen on the spot. “I didn’t do…”

“I know,” the woman said, the weapon still raised but her hands were shaking. “I’m so sorry Jemma, but I have to do this.”

“What?” Jemma began to ask but couldn’t finish the sentence, the world going black around her.

***

Daisy sighed as she continued to drive, fighting back the tears that she had. She knew what she was doing was the best thing, was the _right_ thing but she still hated doing this. Ripping Jemma away from a family that she had created but then she shook her head, reminding herself that this world wasn’t real, and if Jemma stayed in here too long, it would kill her.

By the time they got to the backdoor, Jemma was still asleep, her chest rising and falling gently. And Daisy sighed, flinging the door open with more force than was probably necessary, and walked over to Jemma’s side of the car, lifting her out of it.

Carrying Jemma to the warehouse, and standing at the door, the air rippling in it, she whispered an apology and stepped into it.

And moments later, woke up in the Playground. She shot up in the bed, taking in a gasping breath and ripping off the headpiece. Coulson rushed over to her, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder and asking if she were okay.

Daisy nodded, her attention focused on Jemma. The other woman had also sat up, and was looking around the woman. She was shaking, her eyes glistening with tears. “Fitz?” she asked, her voice broken and low. “Where’s Peggy and Ava?” And then she seemed to realise where she was, her hands coming to cover her mouth, a sob catching in her throat.

Fitz stepped forward from his compute to see her but it was May who reached her first, sliding on to the bench with Jemma, pulling the woman into a hug. Sobs filled the woman as Jemma took everything in. Low mournful sobs that torn at Daisy’s very heartstrings.

Fitz stood there, taking in everything that had happened. Until Daisy lead him out of the room.

***

He stood outside their room. It was a number of hours since they had freed Jemma from the Framework. Daisy had told him everything. About how she had family with him in the Framework. About how they had two daughters, a dog, a life in Perthshire. And how she had had to rip Jemma from that. He said he never blamed her, and with time Jemma wouldn’t. That it had been for the best.

He told Daisy that he would talk with her later. And now, it seemed, later had come. It took him a while, but here he was, standing outside their bunk and slowly he knocked, not too loud in case Jemma was asleep.

“You can come in,” she called from inside the room, and he pushed the door open and found her, wearing an old hoodie of his, curled up on his side of the bed.

He looked at her, at her cheeks, still damp with tears, at her eyes, still red and puffy, and felt his heart twist. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, padding across the room and sliding into the bed next to her, pulling her in close.

He felt her shake her head against his chest. “I should have known,” she chastised. “I should have known it was fake.” She sighed, letting out a breath. “She fixed my biggest regret. Not telling you I loved you sooner.” A bitter laugh from Jemma.

“You loved me all this time?” he asked, but he knew the answer. He had seen the videos she had made on Maveth.

She nodded. “I thought you were handsome from the outset, I always wanted… I always wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, and recently… I do want to have a family with you, Fitz. I do want a life in Perthshire. A happily ever after.”

“I know,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead, then an idea came to him. He tilted away from her so he could look over his shoulder and he reached over, yanking open the bedside drawer and reaching in, grabbing something.

Once he had found what he was looking for, he rolled back over and flicked it open.

“Fitz?” Jemma asked, working out what he was implying but being also so confused at the same time.

“I know… I love you Jemma, and you’re my best friend. You always have been and you always will be. There’s no one I would rather spend my life with, there’s no one else I want by my side for the future. There’s no one else I would rather have a family with, grow old with. I want…” he couldn’t find the words, forgetting everything he had planned to say. “Will you marry me Jemma Anne Simmons?”

She nodded, reaching up and wiping away tears. Tears of happiness opposed to those of sadness. “Yes, I will marry you.”

She couldn’t help smiling as he slid the ring on her finger, two bands of silver delicately interwoven, the jewels catching the dim orange light of the lamp and she allowed herself to kiss him.

It was a kiss celebrating their engagement, celebrating being together after so long apart. It was a kiss of love, of passion, of just pure affection.

And neither Jemma nor Fitz knew what the future would hold, but they were sure that whatever it was, they could do it, they could face, like they did everything.

Together.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry! I've wanted to write a fic like this for years now and it was Framework that gave me the ability to work out the finer details. Despite the major plot twist, I really hope that you enjoyed it and thank you for checking out!
> 
> Title from Adventure Time by Bry.


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